Guagua, look at this shameless young lady! Whose family does she belong to and have the nerve to ask me to write a poem? Isn't she afraid I'll strip her naked?!
Hiss~~~
How brutal!
Everyone looked at the girl in front with sympathy.
[Host, this is Shi Jinglan, the daughter of the Minister of Works. She fell in love with Crown Prince Yan Beichen at first sight and sees you as her rival. She is arrogant and domineering, so be careful. Her whole family is no pushover!]
Um?
Everyone silently began to ponder the Minister of Works' family affairs.
[Guagua, what does that mean?]
[Host, have you ever heard of someone who kills their wife to attain enlightenment?]
[Isn't this something you only see in cultivation novels? What's going on?]
The ministers: What's going on?
Could it be that Shi Jia, the Minister of Works, was a cultivator of immortality?
Otherwise, why would they be so arrogant!
You have to understand that right now in Shengjing, you can't afford to offend Shen Mingzhu!
[Host, Minister Shi of the Ministry of Works rose to power in Shengjing by killing his wife to prove his Dao! This Shi Jinglan is his only daughter with his fourth wife.]
[Holy crap! Guagua, don't insult the phrase "killing one's wife to prove one's Dao." Just say he killed his wife for personal gain! Lord Shi is the modern-day Chen Shimei!]
[Guagua, you used inappropriate language; you should be punished!]
[Alright, host, I deserve to be punished! That's basically the gist of it!]
The entire hall fell silent.
No one dared to utter a sound.
Crown Prince Yan Beichen was also stunned!
I never expected to uncover such a juicy secret while attending a banquet.
The key issue is that people are living!
If he remembered correctly, Lord Shi had never been married or had children before he proposed to Lady Shi!
Mother Shen was also covered in a cold sweat; it was too ruthless!
[Guagua, tell me the story of Minister Shi, a modern-day Chen Shimei (a notorious figure in Chinese folklore known for abandoning his wife).]
[Host, Minister Shi Tengfei came from a poor family, but he was intelligent from a young age. He could learn an article after reading it a dozen times with success! Unfortunately, both his parents died, and he was all alone, unable even to support himself, let alone study!]
So, he first tricked Shi Xiaohua, the daughter of a hunter in their village. Rumor had it that Shi Xiaohua's father, Shi Dahai, had found a wild ginseng in the mountains and was wealthy. Shi Tengfei promised Shi Xiaohua that if she could support his studies, he would marry her. Although Shi Tengfei was poor, he was handsome and refined, and the lovestruck Shi Xiaohua was very fond of him. Shi Dahai, unable to resist his daughter's affection, had no choice but to agree. Thus, the hunter's daughter became his first wife. Of course, the wedding ceremony was a simple family meal, and since the hunter's family were outsiders living at the edge of the village, few people knew about it. So when the villagers saw him going to school and asked where the money came from, he said it was a loan from the Shi family, promising to repay them double after he passed the imperial examination! Of course, on the day he passed the examination and became a scholar, the hunter Shi Dahai noticed something amiss from the villagers' stories. During the confrontation, he was pushed down a hillside and died from blood loss due to delayed medical attention.
Because Shi Dahai was a hunter, no one in the village suspected anything when he fell down the hillside and died. They all thought he was just unlucky and had fallen down a steep slope without anyone noticing. At the time, Shi Xiaohua was pregnant and heartbroken. Shi Tengfei put a large amount of safflower and a mild poison in the chicken soup she drank. Shi Xiaohua miscarried and died from the poisoning. From then on, Shi Tengfei seized all the silver from the hunter's family!
[Having perfectly resolved the situation with the Shi family father and daughter, Shi Tengfei caught the eye of a wealthy merchant in town, who wanted to marry his daughter to him. After the engagement, Shi Tengfei openly moved into the Jin family's residence. Master Jin was determined to have Shi Tengfei pass the imperial examinations and become an official, so that the Jin family would have powerful backers in the court!]
[As a result, Jin Qiaoqiao, the daughter of the Jin family, was completely bewitched by Shi Tengfei's few sarcastic poems, believing everything he said! Finally, when Master Jin took his two sons to another region to purchase goods, he bribed a group of bandits to kill the three of them on their way home!]
Jin Qiaoqiao was devastated by the sudden loss of her father and brothers. Her uncles and aunts came to seize her family property, but fortunately, the scholar Shi Tengfei helped her protect it. Finally, Shi Tengfei coaxed Jin Qiaoqiao into selling the shops and house, and they went to the prefectural city with all the silver notes. In the prefectural city, the two relied on each other for survival, and during the mourning period, they married after a vow of eternal love.
Of course, Jin Qiaoqiao had deposited her silver notes and other valuables at the Sihai Money Exchange, which could be withdrawn with her personal seal. She was wholeheartedly devoted to Shi Tengfei, but Shi Tengfei didn't want her as a person; he only wanted her money. After some time, Shi Tengfei met the daughter of a minor official in the prefectural city, and the two fell in love. One dark and stormy night, Shi Tengfei sealed Jin Qiaoqiao in the well of their small courtyard!
The minor official's daughter, surnamed Hai and named Shanshan, and the two were deeply in love, their relationship as intimate as that of a married couple. Before Shi Tengfei went to Shengjing to take the imperial examination, he became engaged to Hai's daughter. Before his departure, they lit red candles and prayed to heaven and earth, promising to marry her in grand style upon his return. Hai's family provided him with travel expenses and a carriage for the exam, bought him a page, and hired two guards to protect him. He passed the exam with flying colors and became a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination). When the candidates were being chosen for marriage, he was caught by a member of the Cui family, his current wife, Cui Xiangxiang. The Cui family asked him if he had ever been married. He replied that he had been poor in his youth and focused solely on the imperial examination, and had never married.
Poor Hai Shanshan was already pregnant at the time. When Shi Tengfei returned home in glory, she was heavily pregnant and had to bind her belly. When Shi Tengfei found out, he arranged to meet her at a popular local temple. The two met on the back mountain, and he personally pushed her off the cliff. From then on, he married the Cui family's daughter and rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the Minister of Works.
Over the years, he has been an honest and upright official, proceeding with extreme caution, and has done many good deeds for the people!
[Guagua, being a good official doesn't necessarily mean being a good person. He's honest and upright because he has enough money to spend now. Have you calculated how much money he received from the Shi, Jin, and Hai families? And his good deeds for the people—isn't that what a court official should do?]
[An official who doesn't serve the people might as well go home and grow sweet potatoes!]
Prince An in the hall stared wide-eyed at Shi Tengfei.
So you're a serial killer!
He secretly instructed his guards to be on high alert and keep a close watch on Shi Tengfei, the Minister of Works.